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Former MSU football player Demetrious Cox reaches plea deal in assault case

EAST LANSING - Former Michigan State University football player Demetrious Cox will pay $1,085 in fines and restitution to resolve a criminal case stemming from an alleged assault on a taxi driver last fall in East Lansing.

Cox, a senior team captain and starting defensive back on last year's team, will avoid jail time under a plea agreement that reduces a misdemeanor assault charge to a civil infraction of littering, court records indicate. The assault charge will be dismissed if he abides by a set of conditions.

Police records indicate the 22-year-old Cox was drunk and lost when he punched a cab driver during the early morning hours of Nov. 24, breaking the driver's nose.

The driver told police that Cox gave him directions "exactly to where he had been picked up" and eventually became aggressive. At one point, Cox refused to pay for the cab ride, set down a burrito and began punching him, the driver said.

Cox had a blood-alcohol level of 0.22 after being taken to the East Lansing Police Department lock-up, the records indicate.

Cox admitted responsibility during a hearing Thursday in 54B District Court and was ordered to pay a total of $1,085 in fines and costs, including about $525 in restitution to the cab driver, court records indicate. He has until Jan. 26 to pay that sum and must abide by a set of conditions that were not specified in the court's public docket entries.

East Lansing City Attorney Thomas Yeadon said the outcome was "fairly typical" for misdemeanor cases. The resolution was appropriate based on the circumstances surrounding the case, he said.

A misdemeanor assault case involving NBA and former MSU star Draymond Green was resolved in a similar fashion last year.

Cox was represented by MSU's Student Legal Services. An attorney from that office did not immediately return a phone message left for him by the State Journal on Thursday.

Contact Ken Palmer at (517) 377-1032 or kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.